NEW YORK - Prominent business leaders, influencers, corporate decision makers and fashionistas gathered Sunday, August 19th at B. Smith's in Sag Harbor to celebrate three distinguished leaders in civil rights activism, business and media who have achieved success as a minority or who have advanced the diversity agenda in America.

“The work, drive and determination of Marc, Donna and Laurence is the light and legacy that future generations will follow,” says Andrea Hoffman, CEO and founder of Diversity Affluence. “These three leaders, in their extraordinary vision, could be referred to as outliers, a term referring to things or phenomema that lie outside normal experience. This year's honorees have enriched life's moments in such a significant way that future generations will be impacted.”

Morial, a former mayor of New Orleans is one of the most accomplished servant-leaders in the country. As the CEO of the National Urban League since 2003, he operates the nation's largest civil rights organization, where he has been the primary catalyst for change. His energetic and skilled leadership has expanded the League's work around an empowerment agenda.

“Marc's work at the League is redefining civil rights in the 21st century,” Hoffman says, “with a renewed emphasis on closing the economic gaps between Whites and Blacks as well as rich and poor Americans.”

Byrd is publisher of TheRoot.com, a daily online news source with more than 2 million readers that is a platform to help engage the Black community and provide a forum to showcase a myriad of African American perspectives. The content is meant to inform and, ultimately, motivate its audience to mobilize behind specific issues. This year with Byrd's leadership, TheRoot.com has focused on the issue of obesity in the Black community, sponsoring seminars and carrying articles on the topic.

Laurence Boschetto is a passionate advocate of business results, equality and inclusion for all with a vision of “dignified intolerance” against those who discriminate.

Twenty years ago, according to Boschetto, his executive team consisted primarily of balding white men in their 50s. “They looked like me,” he said. Today, the Draftfcb executive team is 20 percent African American, 20 percent gay, 20 percent Asian and 50 percent female.

Last year, the Draftfcb leader received AdColor and GLAAD's Inaugural Advocate Award for leadership and influence in the industry. He has played a major role in the creation of Draftfcb's “It Gets Better” video and was recently featured in USA Today on a special section designed to help kids tune out hatred and bullying. As a featured speaker at the World Diversity Leadership Summit at the United Nations last year, Boschetto illustrated how inclusion makes sense and cents.

The 3rd Annual Diversity Affluence & Brunch, produced by Influence Events, was hosted by A.J. Calloway, New York City correspondent on “Extra,” and former host of the popular B.E.T. show “106 & Park: B.E.T.'s Top 10 Live.”

As the only company of its kind, Diversity Affluence is a New York-based diversity research, marketing communications and business development consultancy that helps brands and businesses understand and market to affluent ethnic consumers-a group coined as “Royaltons™.” For more than 25 years, Andrea Hoffman, Diversity Affluence's founder and chief executive officer, has been a marketing strategist and trend forecaster.

For more information about Hoffman, Diversity Affluence or Black Is The New Green: Marketing to Affluent African Americans, visit www.DiversityAffluence.com.